I just did the math from all my work last year and even only paying myself €1000/month and adding everything up (VAT + Social Security, Salary Tax and other business taxes) for every €1 of profit, I have to pay €0,50 to the government. This is in a small scale business without any employees (just me) and pretty much at break even after all taxes and my small salary.It's pretty crazy that at this scale 50% of all the money I make goes to taxes.